Week of Progress

There are months when it seems like nothing is ever going to get better, then it seems like everything comes together all at once.

I am having the ‘up’ wave of progress this week.

Aside from the goals I mentioned in my last post, I also completed all my workouts, practices, and lessons. I also was able to cut down on my rest time for my runs.

The biggest progress I made this week seems to be in standard–and that is a long time coming. It seems that all I was hearing from Boss was how nothing was really working in standard and I was shaky, disconnected, turned the wrong way and just not coming together.

This week, we looked at the standard steps I have been doing in my exercises, and kept working through the foxtrot. The work I was doing on my own seemed to start bringing things together as my mind worked to process everything I was doing.

The most profound thing happened in my lesson yesterday. After looking through the exercises, we tried the steps together to see if the changes carried over into the partnership (as previously, it seemed to fall apart when we were together). All the steps worked right, and Boss was really pleased with the foxtrot.

He told me that for the first time he could feel me working through my feet and I was responding to the lead to rotate left and right and I was turning as one unit like I am supposed to. I even got a ‘high five’ for my spin turn in waltz.

There is still a lot of work to do, but finally it seems my mind and my body are starting to connect and work together in standard. Even my position is stronger and more stable now.

It all seems to have happened in the last week.

On top of the standard victories, Boss also mentioned he found my rumba walks to be much smoother and consistent, and we started working on stationary samba walks on top of whisks in samba–particularly in incorporating the bounce action I have been working on. Boss mentioned he plans to add bota fogos soon. He even said my jive was looking pretty consistent.

Finding out there has been progress in a week where I have struggling with fatigue and working hard to get everything in, really helped. I am going to take the small moment of glory, and then rest to reset for next week, giving my body time to heal.

I mentioned I might have a bit of interesting news a few posts ago–well here it is:

For more than a year now, Boss and I have been working to put together some open smooth routines, for a variety of reasons. Neither one of us was happy with the routines we had put together previously and after working with one of the top Canadian smooth professionals it became clear that the choreography in those routines was just not right.

In a moment of inspiration, I proposed to Boss that we contact one of the top smooth judges and professionals and see if she would be willing to design routines for us. She agreed, and we have the first routine for Waltz! We haven’t run through it yet, but it looks really promising and I am excited to try it out. There are so many aspects to smooth that I really want to work on in my dancing right now (and can crossover to both latin and standard).

Finally–my biggest piece of news and progress for this week: I no longer require regular follow-ups with the oncologist! I am now officially into regular screening which will be a physical exam and some blood work every 6 months. That is such a huge positive sign that everything is going well.